Australian Unity Financial Planning has replaced Garrisons as its back office administrator following a deal being struck with IOOF Funds Management-owned OutScope.
Australian Unity had been using Garrisons for its back office requirements, however the Melbourne-based dealer group was forced to review its options after Garrisons signalled it will soon cease to offer such services.
Australian Unity general manager retail services Travers Stow said the switch was amicable and was driven by “Garrisons indicating to us that they wanted to move out of the outsourcing space”.
The deal with OutScope will see the adviser firm utilise a “comprehensive suite” of the services on offer.
These will include brokerage administration, X-plan software, research and the adviser workbench.
“We are in the process of implementing the (back-office) project with completion schedules for February next year,” Stow said.
OutScope will be used by all 20 advisers in the Australian Unity group. Currently it has one adviser in Brisbane, three in Sydney and the rest in Victoria.
The dealer group has more than $100 million of funds under management although is yet to achieve profitability in its operations.
According to the 2004 annual report Australian Unity’s financial planning operations reported an after-tax loss of $769,000 on revenue of $938,000.
Australian Unity is the first non-IOOF owned dealer group to sign up for OutScope. It is understood IOOF is also competing with another back-office provider for a major Queensland dealer group, although no decision has been made on a winner.
It is the first time in recent years that the two former friendly societies have used each other’s services, having been rivals in the past.
